realthing's builds will be recorded here.

After much soul searching decided to build a female tank rather than a male one. Here are the starting pictures:







The plan is to build a Mark II C21 The Perfect Lady, illustrated in the Osprey book on the Mark I tank. Hope to start in 2011

Another Osprey tank. This should be interesting.

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Collectable kits built here. Baggies, blisters or boxed. You collect 'em, but I'll build 'em.

Decided it was time to get on with this one. Here's progress to date:



As mentioned above, this will be built as a Mk II female. The big advantage - as all know - is that the Airfix kit is more representative of a Mk II than a Mark I. Nevertheless, some changes are needed. This photo shows the V-shaped covers over the exhausts (no silencer fitted), filled in hatch on the 'cab' and, just visible, a reworked front towing point.

The sponsons are as per the kit except that the MG mounts have been modified to take the smaller Lewis MGs that were fitted to C21. I've just pushed a bit of plaggy rod in place to give an impression of how they will look. The sponsons are left off so that I can paint them separately.



Rear view shows the absence of the steering gear; the holes have been filled. Also evident is a small plate I've added to the rear hull. I've no idea what this was - unless it covered up the original mounting point for the steering gear - or whether I've represented it correctly but it seems to be present on Mark IIs. Also added is a stowage box. Apparently this was made of wood and photos show the ties holding it in place. I've added a bit of stowage (flimsies and a spade).

So, it's pretty much built apart from the tracks where most of the work is left. Mark IIs were fitted with spuds so I'll need to scratchbuild a few  :(

Also need to add some more stowage and do a little bit of detailing around the 'cab'. The following is a link to a photo of the tank in question:

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:MarkIITanksC21C26BattleOfArras1917.jpg

Looking quite fine

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Models on the go = 3, for progress see http://airfixtributeforum.myfastforum.o ... 31&t=23545
For all my completed builds see http://airfixtributeforum.myfastforum.o ... 87&t=13516

Nice work so far. Some really neat corrections and additions.

Lol.

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Thanks guys. I've fitted the tracks this evening and discovered that I hadn't managed to line up the side pieces perfectly but hopefully it won't be too noticeable....

Work prevents play for a day or so but will try to complete the build over the weekend if I can fabricate all the spuds!

Looks good
(and you don´t have to worry about the steering gear  :) )
The tank in the wiki link appears to have no cammo patterns. Did they all have cammo patterns or can they just be painted up "plain" ?

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I knew the truck didn´t want to hit me....it had Dodge written on the front!

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Thanks Paul, glad to be avoiding the steering gear, it seems rather troublesome  :?



It's not obvious from this particular photo but it seems that the tank hull was a plain colour (probably brown) but the sponsons were camouflaged. This is attributed to their being ex-Mark I sponsons fitted to the Mark II hulls. A colour picture of the tank is given in the Osprey book on the Mark I tank. The pic on this link isn't of the same tank but shows the sponson camouflage well:

http://www.museumsyndicate.com/item.php?item=43203&tag=55

I think that male Mark IIs were overall brown.

Just an update. Been a bit delayed due to work but tracks are now glued in place and I've created some of the stowage to be attached to the upper hull.

Also started spud-bashing - creating the track spuds. Since there are 30 or so, it's taking time but will hopefully finish it in a day or so.

Once the construction is completed, will post some pictures

Hoping for the least inspiring picture of the GB, I took this posed shot of spud bashing - creating the 30 odd track spuds for the Mark II:



I've made two templates/jigs for cutting the bits - the top one is for the roughly triangular shaped plates and the bottom left one is for cutting the mounting brackets (the strip fits in the groove and is trimmed to length). Keeping them simple for practical reasons but hopefully will look OK once fitted and muddied up.

Also visible is my homemade single-edged razor blade (have some 'real' ones somewhere but can't find them). Really useful for cutting yourself and trimming 20 thou square strip.

Only another 22 to go....  :?

They look very fiddly. Nice bit of scratch work. I like the homemade single-edged razor blade...razorblades are very usefull I find, they can be cut to a sharp piont for cleaning off the most inacessable flash.

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I knew the truck didn´t want to hit me....it had Dodge written on the front!

(26 down - 35 to go)
My ATF Portfolio Paul´s Bods Blog Federation of Bodstonia

Glad to find a fellow razor blade fan, Paul! They're also really handy when you need a very sharp, very fine blade for trimming.

Another fairly trivial update, this time showing the bits of stowage in position on the top of the hull:



Not at all sure about the green lumps. The one on the right I think is OK - seems to be folded tarps. The big bundle on the left is just that. It may have been cam nets but other photos of Mk IIs it just looks like a big bundle of canvas. Always struggled to represent something when I'm not sure what it is supposed to be in the first place  :?  Any comments welcome:!:

I've also finished the spuds but won't fit them until I'm happy with the stowage as they will be a bit vulnerable I fear.

That really is looking good, I wonder if the big bundle was the crews personal kit pilled together and wrapped in a tarp? shouldn't imagine that there was much space inside for storing stuff although I don't suppose that they were used in the same way as WW2 tanks so may not have needed to cart their worldly goods with them.

Cheers

Stu

Looks good to me the bundle to my eyes does look like a bundle of Tarps, so I'd go with it

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Models on the go = 3, for progress see http://airfixtributeforum.myfastforum.o ... 31&t=23545
For all my completed builds see http://airfixtributeforum.myfastforum.o ... 87&t=13516

Nice little details...  :thumb:

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I knew the truck didn´t want to hit me....it had Dodge written on the front!

(26 down - 35 to go)
My ATF Portfolio Paul´s Bods Blog Federation of Bodstonia

Thanks for the comments everyone. Decided to go with the green bits as they'd turned out, otherwise it'll be another GB I fail to complete on time  :(

Working from home today so made a bit of progress in between sessions at the computer.

Here's the latest:





As can be seen the spuds are in position. Impressively, Airfix gave the tank the correct number of track links! The spuds look a bit in-your-face at the moment but hopefully will blend in better when painted.

Stowage is now glued in position so too late to change  :)

The sponsons are held on by BluTack so aren't straight but it looked too odd without them. MGs to follow too.

Now dithering over whether or not to apply some textured mud in the form of textured acrylic paint. I'm not a big fan of such things usually but this is World War I so can't help thinking that mud should be in there somewhere. I'm only planning on using it sparingly around those bits where it seems to have collected.

Advice and suggestions welcome on this one

Next step after that is priming and then finally some paint

Looking excellent realthing, like the spuds.

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Tonkarite, I will make it a word oneday... maybe.
2012 Bought:Built 8:23

Impressive stuff!

Lol.

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What are those blue remembered kits? What planes, what tanks are those? (Airfix Housman)

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My WIP